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Aaron Detroit of SuicideGirls.com recently conducted an interview with Marilyn Manson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

SuicideGirls.com: SLAYER fans are kind of notorious for not being super kind to the bands that play with them. How are you going to handle that?

Manson: Well, I think that, quite honestly, people are not so motivated to be assholes. People now appreciate working for the money to buy a concert ticket. I think the two crowds are going to come together. I think that there's a shared sentiment in that both bands have never backed down in what we believe in or what we stand for. There's all these bands that want to adopt the trappings or the aesthetics of things that I've done or [SLAYER's] done but [those bands] don't have the visceral element to back it up and I think we really need to represent the evil in rock and roll as literal as that needs to be taken. Bringing Satan back.

SuicideGirls.com: Do you think there are any new bands that are carrying that torch at all?

Manson: Well, it's in different ways. You know, it's so hard to say things that I've said in the past now because it's so pointless. I won't even compliment myself by taking credit for even a percentage of them but I think that the world has really finally caught up to the really obvious ironies that I have pointed out for my entire career. So there's no point to really attack the world and that's what led me to the point where I wasn't sure if I wanted to make music anymore. I didn't understand who I was supposed to be. I didn't understand if I had anything left to say. I didn't understand what I was doing when I made this record, but now, looking back, I can see, I had yet to turn the microscope onto myself, and I think that that's the only way you can relate basically what I've always been saying, which is about believing in yourself. It's about self-preservation, it's about standing up for what you believe in and not caring if other people disagree with it, but at this point instead of wasting your time commenting on religion and politics the only thing people talk about is an infomercial on MTV. I think that basically I was able to, not even intentionally, make a record that said that to me because I needed to hear it the most. I didn't, I wasn't certain of who I was and I made this record and it made me feel strong again. I think that's maybe the only simple way you can communicate that message with people now. I don't think that people need to hear about the obvious that's right here in front of them.

SuicideGirls.com: Okay, so basically, through making a more personal record you feel like you're commenting on things in more subtle ways?

Manson: It's hard to be objective because it's a little bit too recent but when I try to look back at it and figure out how things came about it's hard to say if it's more personal because I always put so much of myself into everything I do, but I think in the past, I always, I suppose, put my feelings into a metaphor of some sort. Whether it be a persona or a character or a story or something that was a little bit more of an armor for me. I think that I really had to learn how to let my guard down. It was at a point where I didn't know who to trust and I didn't know if I could feel anything. I didn't really know if I had a reason to live. I wasn't even motivated enough to kill myself because I didn't have that much dedication. I really was on the verge of giving up and I think that starting to make this record I ended up having the first true collaboration musically. With Tim [Skold], not at any point did I have to tell him, "This is how I want the guitar to go. I don't want this sound." He was almost scoring whatever he was seeing me go through. I don't know, maybe he knows me that well, maybe it was obvious. I'm not sure.

SuicideGirls.com: What are your feelings on the current political climate and where do you see the country heading in the next few years?

Manson: Well, you know, a lot of people misinterpreted my comment about Bush saying I was advocating him to be in office, which wasn't true. I was just saying, simply, that if he was that it would be a time that maybe artists would strive for more because you're put into boundaries. Little did I know that it was going to be as bad as it's been, in fact I think that it's now reached the point where there's this absurd, sort of almost Nazi, Berlin, McCarthy-era Hollywood where people lose their jobs for saying just random stuff where, I remember when Bill Maher, his show got canceled because he said something about 9/11 and it's just reached like a real absurd level. But, if you turn on the real world there are people fucking each other in the ass and getting drunk - the world is really fucked up and backwards. It's gotten to the point where I think it's almost the same as when I started the band and why I came up with the name Marilyn Manson. I think it's different, but in a way it's the same. It's really strange how things go in circles and it's, ultimately, the people who are not artistic, who are not creative, they're not architects, they're not writers, they're not speech makers, they're not musicians, those people have historically been terrified. Take Nazi Germany, for example, and the McCarthy era, they've been terrified of the people who are creative and they'll do everything they can to suppress them, although without them they wouldn't have anything. Do we go to bed at night thinking about the politicians and religion? Most of the time you go to bed thinking about a song or a movie you saw or the room that you're in that somebody designed. It's never going to be cured so I'm not going to try and be the hero that tries and makes it happen. I think at least we're all trying to catch up, but then you have to combine that with the fact that anybody can be famous now.

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